‘I’ve realized my dream,’ says Obiano, bids farewell to Anambra people

[From CHINEDU NWAFOR, Abakaliki]

Chief Willie Obiano, Wednesday, bade farewell to the people of Anambra State, saying, he came to governance with a lot of dreams which he was able to achieve.

Obiano disclosed this in a broadcast titled: “I Touched a Dream”, which was aired on Wednesday.

He noted that, in his inaugural address, he shared his vision of a greater Anambra State, which sounded like a dream, but most of the dreams had been come true.

He said, under his administration, Anambra was the safest in the country.

“Under our Administration Anambra children soared in international competitions winning prizes. In rural infrastructure, the N20million Community Choose Your Project in which the 181 communities benefitted twice was also outstanding”, he said.

He added that he attracted Court of Appeal and stopped Anambra people from going to Enugu each time they have a matter in the Appeal Court.

Obiano said: “We approached Education in three broad areas: Students’ Welfare, Teachers’ Welfare and Infrastructure Development. Essentially, my administration set out to maintain the competitive advantage our state has enjoyed in education over other states in the country and take it a notch higher.

“To achieve that, we sent Anambra teachers on off-shore training and exposed them to global best practices. We did that because we knew that the best way to take charge of tomorrow is to inculcate the right character in our teachers today. This is one of the secrets of Anambra’s great performances in education under my watch.

“Our government funded both missionary and public schools in equal measure: donated the sum of N2.8bn to both Mission and Public Schoools, apart from over 300 students it offered scholarships.

“In the health sector, it introduced Anambra State Health Insurance Agency (ASHIA) which was set up to make quality health delivery services easy and accessible to the greater number of the people; built Oxygen Plant in the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH) which he said is the biggest state-owned oxygen plant in Nigeria, among other things.

“This is in addition to N1.2bn it released to all mission and government owned hospitals in the state to strengthen their capacities to respond to the medical needs of the people.

“Our Economic Blueprint was anchored on Agriculture, Industrialization, Trade and Commerce and Oil and Gas.

“The state approach to agriculture attracted private Farms which particularly took interest in rice and maize production and rice production increased from 80,000 metro’s in 2014 to 525,000 metric tons in 2021.

“Maize production also rose from 15,902 metric tons to 74,255 metric tons. Cassava rose from 275,832 metric tons in 2014 to 2,060,687 among other things, he said.

“In the area of  industrialization, the state established Anambra Small Business Agency (ASBA) which successfully funded 10,000 cooperatives, micro enterprises and artisans while also providing operating capital to 300 small and medium enterprises.

“The modern Small and Medium Enterprises complex at Nkwelle Ezunaka which houses ultramodern industrial shoe-making hub with cutting edge technology and a capacity to produce shoes that compare with shoes made in Europe is a testament to this.

The crowning glory of this administration’s efforts in oil and gas, is the recognition of Anambra State as an oil-producing state by the federal government.

“We have 15 oil wells at the moment. With this achievement, our dear state is now qualified to receive additional revenues from the 13% derivation fund given to oil producing states. 

“This will definitely give a big financial elbowroom to my successor and make it easier for the state to undertake more ambitious projects”.

Obiano also stated that he completed 17 bridges and 113 roads.